A year in the life

Well, we did it! We kept a baby alive for ONE ENTIRE YEAR.

I'm surprised too.

So, in planning Claire's 1st birthday party, I turned to Pinterest and searched for "birthday 1 year old". And do you know, articles popped up like "The Ultimate List of Gifts for Your 1 Year Old!!!!!!!!
and  "What every one year old little girl is dying to get for her first birthday!!!!"

First of all, my 1 year old doesn't even understand the concept of "getting" unless it's "get that puff in my mouth". So, I guess add puffs to the top of her "ULTIMATE BEST EVER BIRTHDAY LIST".

Also add cat hair because she LOVES that stuff.  Actually, that shouldn't go on the list because we are stocked up.  So, scratch the cat hair, but leave in things like empty boxes and my phone. Also strangers dirty car keys (whattup, dude in the grocery store! Thanks SO MUCH for handing my infant your filthy keys. You know what babies like. You should write Pinterest articles!) 

Sidenote: do you know how many presents were on that "ULTIMATE EXTREME TO THE MAXXXX BEST BIRTHDAY GIFTS FOR A 1 YEAR OLD EVER IN THE HISTORY OF BIRTHDAYS!!!!!!"  list?     26. Twenty flipping six. Um, for Christmas, we got Claire 1 toy and a stuffed reindeer. The toy was a xylophone in a stand that you drop balls through to hit the keys. She chews on the wooden balls, ignores the rest of it.  For Easter, we got her a headband with bunny ears on it from the Target Dollar Spot. Her birthday party is in a few days and I have no idea what I'll get her. Good thing she doesn't care and has no idea what's happening! :)

Baby stats:

How old is Claire?:   1.  As in, 1 YEAR OLD.  52 weeks.  I have no words for this except how?? and when? And where did that teensy baby go???

How Claire is eating: Oh, the eating. Claire LOVES to eat. Big shock. We're a bit behind on the whole "solid foods" thing, but who cares? It's not like she's going to go to kindergarten eating pureed bananas. Also, until this last tooth popped in, solids have made me nervous. Everyone who has had kids is like "give her a slab of beef jerky!" and I'm all "SHE HAS 2 TEETH!"

Prunes were a bad choice

How Claire is sleeping: Pretty well. Daylight savings time meant we got to bump her bedtime from 5:30 pm to more like 6:30 pm, which actually makes a huge difference. Now we can make it home from work and actually DO something as a family instead of just get ready for bed. She still sleeps through the night, although there have been a lot of 5:30 wake up calls lately.

Up and ready for action

How much weight I've lost: Guys. GUYS. I have good news and bad news. The good news is I am back to my pre-baby weight!! The bad news is, everything seems to have shifted around and most of my old clothes still don't fit. WHAT THE HECK. This is so confusing to me because I feel like if my waist got bigger, yet I still weigh the same amount, something had to have shrunk, right? But I can't figure out what that is. Maybe my earlobes? My pinky fingers? Ooh, or maybe pregnancy made me taller? Is that a thing? Either way, I'm still "dieting" (I put that in quotation marks because my version of "dieting" is not eating the entire pizza - just half. BOOM, DIETED.)

This is actually me now. Jk, it's Beyonce.

How Russell's doing:  I always feel obliged to update you with some kind of major Russell news, but....there's just not much going on. He ordered new grill plates! That's something, right? Ummm.....OOH, he switched to a new brand of razor blade! He'd been using the same razor since high school! So, that happened. Otherwise, pretty much the same.

Still a daddy's girl!

"I like big butts and I cannot lie"

Milestones this month: Claire can stand with help and take some tentative steps, again with help.  She is still babbling and "singing" all the time and can say "mama" and "dada", indescriminately. She can give kisses, although she's stingy with 'em.  Her favorite toys are her books, especially "Brown Bear, Brown Bear". She loves to "play" the piano with either of us. She loves being sung to, particularly "Dancing Bear", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and "Baby Got Back." Jk, just checking to see if you were still reading.